Bobby G.

Roy
7 December 2010
ORGB 625
Bobby G. Roy’s Personal Assessment and Leadership Development Plan

Introduction

The focus of my personal assessment and leadership development plan is to denote the values, beliefs,

thoughts, and actions that will propel me into a state of personal fulfillment as a more complete leader at home, in

the workplace, and in the community.

The preparation of this document will result in the creation of a deliverable to be frequently referenced

and used as a reminder of the overall direction and more specific strategies to achieve my personal and

professional hopes, dreams, and aspirations, as well as put into place a foundation for facilitating leadership

development in my communities. My more immediate aspirations include being promoted at the California

Department of Education (CDE) and aiding others in finding their financial independence, while my long term goals

are to become an elected official, create policy, and serve my community in a manner that inspires others to serve

their communities as well.

This plan incorporates my total leadership experiments as opportunities to overcome areas of concern

and become a more holistically empowered leader. These areas of concern are time management and organization

and education policy knowledge and skills.

Knowledge gained, self assessment, and discussion of experiences

While I have always seen myself as an introvert, a variety of data stemming from assessment results and

feedback from others have resulted in my reconsideration of my identity. When identifying my core leadership

value of shared identity, I realized that being an extrovert was an integral part of operationalizing that value. The

implied moral and normative aspects that oblige a person to treat others as fellow human beings and equals

requires interaction with others. This results in a genuine, people‐centered orientation where people engage in

service of others around them and are committed to their communities. Among friends, one must be an

transformational leader and community organizer. As foot soldiers, they must be reliable, and the ones who step

forward to volunteer. They must be quick to lend a hand and share their skills and knowledge freely (i.e. by

teaching children, working with the less fortunate, or facilitating community workshops, etc.). They must help with

a big, free smile. This leads to loyalty, commitment, and perseverance.

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Shared identity manifests itself in an interpersonal value of shared perception, or knowing through

feeling. This compliments shared identity. It is a participatory process, where emotions tend to be experienced

mutually. Heightened sensitivity and the ability to read body language are good survival tools in a society where

not all social interactions are carried out with words. Here, only carefully feeling out one another can help us

navigate the ambiguities of life’s encounters—like knowing when to join a group or how to blend in with people.

Connectedness, however does not equate with collectivism and the subjugation of an individual to the

group. I also value freedom, the idea of self-determination and self-actualization. The concept of having agency

and the ability to positively influence those around you is incredibly important to me. Autonomy, the

independence to make one’s own decisions is essential for progress. Rather, shared identity and perception is the

emphasis of the whole plus its isolated parts and on blending and collaboration, as well as how to enhance and

support others. It is important that people pool their strengths and achieve common goals by working together, by

sharing surplus, instead of hoarding and racketeering. We must make sure the heart is also full, not just the

stomach or the bank account.

These values stand for an organic concept of the world. They thrive on basic connectedness—of person

with person, of person with nature, of person with the unseen spirit worlds and, ultimately, of person with God.

For these values, the most impactful and supportive leadership topics were emotional and social

intelligence, the effect of gender on leadership, authentic leadership and self-monitoring, leadership ethics, and

personal development. These topics intersect to create the platform upon which sustainable, transcendental

leadership can spring forth.

My value of shared identity is one that seems strongly interconnected with emotional and social

intelligence. Emotional intelligence can be divided into two dimensions: (1) non cognitive self-management

personae; and (2) social dexterity (Wakeman). Similarly, social intelligence contains seven components: (1)

empathy; (2) attunement; (3) organizational awareness; (4) influence; (5) developing others; (6) inspiration; and (7)

teamwork (Goleman and Boyatzis). In order to create and develop a shared identity and a shared perception

between people, one must demonstrate high emotional and social intelligence. The social intelligence quality of

attunement also supports my value of shared identity.

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The results of my Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire were a coordinate pair of (6, 7), which placed me

in the sector of the circle attributed to a gamma alpha persona. This means that my social dexterity score is 7 and

my non-cognitive self-management personae score is 6. The quadrant and sector describes people with well-

developed social dexterity and non-cognitive self-management skills. Feeling confident in my ability to employ

emotional and social intelligence, I can best leverage my limited time to develop stronger relationships.

My value of freedom is also tied directly to the differences in leadership styles of men and women and

how each are valued. Studies have shown that women prefer and tend to behave in terms of a feminine leadership

model characterized by cooperativeness, collaboration of managers and subordinates, lower control for the

leaders, and problem solving based on intuition and empathy as well as rationality (Eagly and Johnson). Women’s

leadership styles emphasize interpersonal relations to a greater extent than men’s styles, and are more democratic

and participative (Eagly and Johnson). In the article “Women and the Vision Thing”, it is theorized that women are

as visionary as men but in a different way, where they engage in more collaboration and rely on diverse and

external inputs and alliances in forming their vision (Ibarra and Obodaru). The research shows that women are

more natural connectors. Unfortunately, male leadership styles are too often touted as the definitive leadership

styles, and valued more than female leadership styles. This framework is a form of oppression against women and

their leadership styles.

The understanding of gender’s effects on leadership and an androgynous style of leadership can be

effective tools in closing the rift between men and women, bringing the two sexes together for a variety of issues

as allies and supporters of one another. The goal is more than a tolerance or acknowledgement of a difference in

leadership style, but an acceptance of the strengths and weaknesses of different styles. These commonalities can

be used to form coalitions on a variety of matters and issues. I acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of

different styles of leadership and the advantage of having an androgynous leadership style.

A tempered authentic leadership is also necessary for leadership movements to occur. The idea that a

moderate amount of self monitoring is acceptable to navigate difficult circumstances or personality conflicts is as

important as not compromising one’s own values and beliefs is an interesting concept. This can be done not only

to avoid regrets, but to also meet and exceed the expectations of followers, and maintain their followership and

loyalty from one goal to the next. Individuals that engage in impression management and self-monitoring are not
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necessarily violating trust and authenticity. As a result of the letters of Day and Bedeian, I have a more complex

perspective on how high self-monitoring (HSM) and low-self monitoring can be interpreted by followers and third

parties, with respect to being considered authentic and consistent. Trust is a key to effective leadership (Bedeian

and Day). Self exposure, relating, and making leaderly choices also result in a perception of authentic leadership

for both the leader and to those they seek to lead (Ladkin and Taylor).

The journals and journal responses have helped to clarify ideas behind authentic leadership, and the idea

that leaders filter out some elements that are not appropriate for some situations (Orsaba-Finders, Re: Journal

Entry 2 - Amy Gutierrez), and do not create false personas that result in one being a false leader. Another example

that clarified this was how we have work clothes and leisure clothes, but in neither attire are we being more or less

authentic, because attire is merely an indication of outside appearance, not our inner personalities (Linnehan). In

essence, leaders can maintain solid ground while also self-monitoring and engaging in impression management.

These actions, as behaviors of emotional and social intelligence, are enhancements to one’s leadership ability.

Even strong ethically driven movements, like social movements, labor movements, civil rights movements,

or revolutions have examples of highly ethical and unethical leaders. When a high dominance motivated leader

perceives instability within the group hierarchy or there is a lack of intergroup competition, leaders sacrifice group

goals for the sake of self-interest (Maner and Mead). Knowing about and being aware of the emergence of these

conditions would be useful and important in preventing such insubordination.

Personal development and professional development have emerged as significant aspects of my

leadership development. An important factor in leadership development is that it must be provided in a manner

that is appropriate to the level of an individual’s leadership role (Ramo and Ibarra). As I advance in my career with

the CDE, I will continue to request specific guidance and training that is appropriate for my classification of work. In

a long term view of my career trajectory, if I find myself in a place where my ethics will be challenged, I hope that I

will be able to employ a boundaryless perspective on my career and a broader view of career success (Callanan).

Based on the readings on the areas of emotional and social intelligence and authentic leadership and self-

monitoring I have identified leadership behaviors that I should continue, as well as make minor and major

adjustments to. For example, my emotional and social intelligence abilities made my first experiment, to better

balance my time between my realms, that much easier. I was able to remain effective in my work realm by
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leveraging my relationships with my colleagues. By better distributing and managing work through the use of

emotional and social intelligence and authentic leadership and self-monitoring, I was able to collapse lengthy and

complicated timelines and better balance my life.

Similarly, the readings on the effect of gender on leadership, leadership ethics, and personal development

were directly related to my second experiment, where I took on different responsibilities in education policy. At

the CDE, my ability to acknowledge and encourage the different styles of my colleagues were in direct proportion

to their ability to mentor me in my new role as an education programs assistant. Being androgynous in my role as a

follower and leader helped me to adapt to the different leadership styles of my colleagues.

The syncretism of my values and experiences with the leadership concepts learned have been

advantageous in applying leadership theories and ideas and implementing my total leadership experiments.

Self-Assessment

Through the analysis of the various assessment instruments and journal entries in the course, one can

identify five reoccurring themes that support the values listed above. They are: (1) All that I am and all that I ever

will be is because of my mother and lola; (2) I am highly motivated to lead and empower others to seek and strive

for social justice, particularly for gender equity; (3) I enjoy being connected to others; (4) I appreciate openings to

pursue personal and professional growth; and (5) I am optimistic and view challenges as opportunities to earn

respect and practice my craft.

My relationships and experiences with my mom and lola continue to be the leading influence on how I

view the world and my role in it. They have empowered me with the idea that I have a prominent part to play in

life, whether my influence reaches one or billions. My experiences have developed my self-confidence, self-

efficacy, resilience, and assertiveness.

Through my mom and lola, as two of the strongest women in my life, I gained a unique perspective on

women and the strength of women. I did not receive as much gender role feedback as other children did. This

came out in the masculine-femininity leadership assessment, which indicated that I displayed a strong feminine

and androgynous style.

As a result of my being the primary caretaker of my mom and lola at the end of their lives, and their role

as the primary caretakers of me in my youth, a beautiful reciprocity existed in our lives. This view is a
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demonstration of my optimistic attitude and positive outlook on life. I believe that this is grounded in my utilization

of locus of control, taking credit when things go well, and reasoning that when things do not go well, it could be a

result of something outside of my control. My optimistic identity also causes me to be highly motivated to lead. My

initiative often leads to my finding myself in essential positions as leader or follower.

My need to feel connected to others, seemingly flies in the face of my idea that I am an introvert.

However, I realize that I do not need to be connected to everybody, just to a limited few in whom I give my trust

and loyalty. One could say that I value quality over quantity.

My life is replete with examples of my emphasis on personal and professional growth, like my dedication

to a life of learning. This has exhibited itself in very apparent ways, like enrolling in a masters program to more

obscure ways, such as looking for lessons in cartoons and other forms of entertainment. The Matchpoint

assessment confirmed this in some notable ways, such as showing that a typical social-enterprising career choice is

that of an adult education teacher, a director of guidance in public school, a human resource s manager, a school

superintendent, or in training. Even in the Drexel Graduate Student Association, I was elected by the body as the

chairperson for the personal and professional development committee. A mantra of mine is that there is no such

thing as perfect, because we can always get better. Therefore, I constantly look for ways to improve.

Finally, despite the challenges I have seen in life, like being an only child, the only male in the family,

losing my mom while in the middle of my undergraduate education, and maintaining the same rigorous student

schedule on top of working to sustain the home, I am affirmed by the fact that I have not only survived, but have

succeeded. I recently caught myself telling others, “I like challenges,” and realized just how true that statement

was. In one instance, I took a test that was twice as challenging as the recommended test, passed it, and felt that

much more accomplished. In another instance, I only engaged in self-study to earn a score on the Graduate

Management Admission Test that I am very proud of. I believe that nothing is more effective than hard work.

Significant Strengths and Developmental Areas

My significant strengths as a self-leader are my strong leadership traits and behaviors. I am very confident

in my own abilities and willingness to be a positive and encouraging example for others. There is no doubt in my

mind that I lead an exemplary life. However, where I lack is the amount of my belief in my influence on others. This

is in direct proportion to the amount of feedback I seek from others, which is disproportionate to the amount of
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positive feedback I give to others. I also lack in my skills in holding others accountable and providing negative

feedback.

In my professional career, I have advanced fairly quickly, from an entry level clerical worker to established

analyst and programs assistant within five years. My own belief in myself and abilities have been key in my

professional growth. Fortunately, others have seen how I have brought out the best in my colleagues and have

rewarded me for that, even when I did not recognize it in myself. That lack of self recognition has pigeonholed my

career advancement. At my present position, one possible career path is to become a manager. However, because

I do not consider myself good at holding crucial conversations and crucial confrontations with others, I have

doubted my ability to become a strong manager, despite other people’s confidence in me. Fortunately, another

path is to become an education consultant, which actually has more growth potential than going up the

management ladder and seems to align more closely with my long term goals. Another weakness I have is being

susceptible to scope creep. As I continue to look for ways to improve myself, I have often found myself involved in

too much, hurting my performance in the many activities I take part in, rather than excelling in just a few.

However, to ultimately fulfill my goals and dreams, and have a life of happiness and a life of meaning, I

will need to not only learn how to hold others accountable, hold myself accountable, but also continue to maintain

a positive work-family balance that minimizes work-family conflict.

Total Leadership Experiments

In an effort to foster work-life balance and minimize work-life conflict, my total leadership experiments

were aimed at two goals: 1) organizing my schedule and 2) negotiating to position myself for career advancement.

Both experiments were designed to allow me to develop good habits and sustain a better balance in my work-life

dynamic now and in the future.

My lack of organization was leading to an inability to remember tasks and duties, meeting deadlines, and

feeling in control of my own schedule. My life was becoming a matter of reacting to what came my way, rather

than being more proactive in managing my schedule. This was a holdover from the behavior I developed in taking

care of my lola, where she always came first and I regularly turned down other activities and tasks to be her

caretaker. After her death and my period of mourning, I found myself with offers of activities and time to do them,

but no manner of organizing and managing my time.

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The use of a time management calendar was incredibly useful in managing my time and having a visual

tool to judge how much time I was devoting to different aspects of my life. It helped me divide up the 168 hours in

each week to be as productive as possible for each area of life. My stakeholders have been pleased with the time

and effort I have been able to devote to them and our common goals. When I have shared my goals with others,

many have commented that they too need to organize themselves better. The ideas that leaders engage in

appropriate behavior to accomplish goals, as well as guide people through chaos, in this case, chaotic schedules,

both served to reinforce this behavior change. In order to keep this change sustainable, it is just a matter of being

diligent in the process of updating and referencing my business and time management planner several times a day.

Looking at where I was as far as keeping my personal and professional life organized, it was easy to see

that what I needed to unfreeze was my lack of discipline with respect to calendaring, making to do lists, and time

management. Using the time management calendar is a change I am still going through right now, and while the

technical experiment is finished, I hope that by the end of the effective experiment, I will have developed positive

habits like calendaring and time management that would be beneficial for me to refreeze. The restraining forces

were and continue to be the complexity of my schedule and the simplicity of ignoring the calendar altogether, but

the driving forces were my feelings of accomplishment and better organization. I feel more efficient and people at

work and in my personal life see that I am more efficient. Their feedback serves to reinforce this change I am

seeking.

In my second total leadership experiment, I successfully negotiated for a training and development

assignment as an education programs assistant, where I would gain policy experience in education. This included

taking on new assignments and engaging in a new role at work. My direct supervisor and colleagues have been

very supportive, and others not in my division have also congratulated me on my role change. The theories that a

charismatic leader takes risks and that leaders are authentic were very helpful in accomplishing this goal. My

honesty with my direct supervisor about my career goals facilitated the creation of a plan to reach them. As a

completely new role for me, the discomfort of taking on these new responsibilities was the strongest force to resist

the change. However, my colleagues have stepped in as mentors and encourage my growth. Engaging in more and

more small projects and developing a track record of success will help make this change sustainable. It has been
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easy for me to engage in activities that I did in my old role as an analyst. In order to successfully transition from an

analyst to a consultant through this assistant position, I must continue to shed my role as an analyst.

In this second experiment, I identified the behavior that needed changing was that of complacency. It was

very comfortable being an analyst in a role and serving in a function that I know very well and am very confident

at. I am unfreezing that behavior by asking for more policy related work. This positions me outside my comfort

zone and forces me to work through the discomfort until it becomes comfortable. The restraining forces are

certainly my aversion to risk, pain, and embarrassment, and the driving forces are self-satisfaction, challenge, and

pride. By checking in with and getting feedback from my mentors and keeping my mind focused on the end goal of

earning a promotion, I am reinforcing the new behavior.

The sustainability of the changes brought about by these experiments will greatly enhance my potential

for accomplishing my professional and personal goals. My professional goals are to become an education programs

consultant at the CDE within three years and to become a regional vice president in Primerica in the next four

years. Both will allow me to personally pay down my car debt, my credit card debt, and gain control of my personal

finances. This will mean continuing to become more disciplined, more dedicated, and more inspirational. The

strengths I possess to make these goals a reality are my clear vision and strong work ethic. However, I need to

address my improvement areas by continuing to better manage my time, putting into practice the information I

learn, and continuing to learn.

In order to become an education programs consultant, I need to obtain a master’s degree by October

2012, successfully fulfill my education programs assistant training and development assignment by October 2012,

pass the education programs consultant examination by April 2012, and successfully apply and be hired for an

education programs consultant position by December 2012. Along the way, my classmates, instructors, colleagues,

and managers can serve as sources of constructive feedback. Of these, my mentors are my work colleagues, Linda

Lownes, Syma Solovtch, and Benjamin Walker, who will provide me guidance on how to accomplish the work.

In order to become a Primerica Regional Vice President, I need to—within the next 90 days—set up and

go on 80 appointments with married, employed homeowners aged 25 to 45 with children, train three of them how

to do the same, and continue to teach people how to become properly protected, debt free, and financially

independent. In this realm, I need to overcome my fear or rejection, begin to make calls and set appointments, and
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obtain feedback from my leaders, Jocelyn Lavilla, Neva Jane Ramones, and Ronnie Dumag. Of these, Ronnie Dumag

will be my mentor and aid me in preparing and implementing a game plan.

Ultimately, I would like to redefine the concepts of power and success in a way that encompasses themes

of strength, inner beauty, and positive social impact through creative expression and the advocacy of social

change. To touch the lives of as many people as possible—especially my family—and encourage people to pursue

their dreams and passions and better themselves and the world as a whole, empowering them to achieve personal

and career happiness and success. This vision will be achieved through one-on-one learning situations (mentoring,

teaching, coaching), creating and disseminating empowering and uplifting material (career, college success,

wellness), and developing and leading inspiring workshops (achieving your dreams, pursuing your passion).

Conclusion

This term, I have learned about many theories and aspects of leadership and refined my ideas on what

makes a good leader. Just as important, I have become more aware of my natural tendencies and identified my

leadership values. Knowing my leadership values, I can ensure that my professional and personal goals are aligned

with them and position myself to succeed. Also, knowing my natural tendencies will inform my plans and strategies

to achieve these goals. As I continue along my present path, this knowledge will serve as guideposts toward career

and life success.

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List of Works Cited

Bedeian, Arthur G. and David V. Day. "Can chameleons lead?" The Leadership Quarterly (2004): 687-718.

Callanan, Gerard A. “What price career success?” Career Development International (2003): 126-133.

Eagly, Alice H. and Blair T. Johnson. "Gender and Leadership Style: A Meta-analysis." Leaders and the Leadership

Process: Readings, Self-assessments & Applications (2008): 109-123.

Goleman, Daniel and Richard Boyatzis. "Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership." Harvard Business

Review September 2008: 74-81.

Guillen Ramo, Laura and Herminia Ibarra. “Seasons of a leader’s development: Beyond a one-size-fits-all approach

to leadership development.” The Academy of Management Proceedings, Annual Meeting Proceedings

(2009).

Ibarra, Herminia and Otilia Obodaru. "Women and the Vision Thing." Harvard Business Review January 2009: 62-

70.

Ladkin, Donna and Steven S. Taylor. "Enacting the 'true self': Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership."

The Leadership Quarterly (2010): 64-74.

Linnehan, Frank. Re: More Rantings and Ravings from Bobby G. Roy. Journal Entry. Philadelphia, 14 October 2010.

Maner, Jon K. and Nicole L. Mead. “The Essential Tension Between Leadership and Power: When Leaders Sacrifice

Group Goals for the Sake of Self-Interest.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 2010: 1-16.

Orsaba-Finders, Ashley. Re: Journal Entry 2 - Amy Gutierrez. Journal. Roseville, 19 October 2010.

Wakeman, Chris. "Emotional Intelligence: Testing, measurement and analysis." Research in Education 75 (2006):

71-93.